


Barbecues

by lunarsilverwolfstar



Series: August 2016 Prompts [7]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Family Feels, Introspection, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 04:10:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9160726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunarsilverwolfstar/pseuds/lunarsilverwolfstar
Summary: It doesn't take them long to compromise, but true happiness is achieved with time.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Day 5.

Felicity laughed at the joke George made, hoping no one could see how fake it was. She turned her head, hair flipping over her shoulder to glance at Oliver, who was over by the grill. Their eyes met and she felt genuine joy at the smile he gave her. That smile said it all. He was content, _happy_  even, to be surrounded by two dozen people who were now their neighbors.

While Felicity had jumped at the chance to get a house with him, she was going a little stir-crazy. She didn’t know why she had agreed. It wasn’t that she didn’t love Oliver. It was quite the opposite. She loved him so much, she couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t. He had taken over every part of her and made her _better_. It was because of how much he’d changed her that she was having a hard time letting go of Starling City (now named Star City).

During their travels, she had been in a blissful state of existence. There was nothing but Oliver by her side and the open road ahead of them. But even that couldn’t keep her still. She was the one that called John and asked how things were going in their city, she was the one who sent Thea daily texts to make sure things were running smoothly, that they were able to use the equipment left behind. Only one time had she gotten a call in which she had to pretend to get food poisoning and cracked open her laptop to access the base’s computers to help them out.

Here and now, out on an open yard, while Felicity was happy to be experiencing a new life with Oliver, she felt like a fraud. The green grass might be real, they may actually have a _real_  garden like she had dreamed as a child, rather than wilting plants out on a small balcony, and even if they were surrounded by people with real jobs, these people weren’t their friends. This place wasn’t their _home_. Their home was each other and they were missing integral people in said home.

\------

Three years ago, it would have been near impossible to get a house in Star City. Many people had to leave their residents in the last six years. Five years ago, Oliver had lost his family home _and_  company in one swoop. Four years ago, he had given up a life of vigilanting and got the girl. Three years ago, he lost said girl. Two years ago, he won her back. A year ago, he asked her to marry him once again. Six months ago, they were able to say “I do” properly. Now, here they are.

A large hand playfully smacks him on the shoulder. “Oliver, man, pay attention to the meat!”  


He laughed. “This is why it takes two to man the grill, John.”

“You mean two and a half,” he teased, lifting the arm that was cradling the five-month-old John Connor Diggle.  


“You’re right.” Oliver flipped a few patties and rolled a couple of hot dogs before he looked around.  


“What’s got you so pensive? I haven’t seen you this serious since you went ring shopping,” his friend inquired.  


He shook his head. “Nothing. I just. I never really thought I’d be _here_. I fu-” He looked at the infant, “messed up so many things in my life. Even with Felicity, even when I thought we were finally getting our happy ending, I screwed up. I knew she wasn’t completely happy when we left Starling. Maybe not at first, but we had a meet-the-neighbors just like this one,” he gestured with the hand not holding the spatula, “I thought I wanted a normal life and I thought that’s what she wanted too. But there was always something missing.” Looking around his new backyard, he saw little Sara running around with Lyla as they threw a ball back and forth to each other. His mother-in-law, Donna, and Felicity’s soon-to-be stepfather, Quentin, were in a little corner, giggling and laughing respectively, probably still hashing out wedding plans. His sister, Thea, was sitting on one of the lounge chairs and sipping on her mimosa, her head leaning against Roy, who now went by Ronald, much to everyone’s amusement.

Felicity, his _wife_ , was talking with the couple, drinking her own orange juice, sans champagne, her unoccupied hand checking her tablet every few minutes. Just was she was looking back up from it, she turned her head and saw him gazing at her with what was probably the dorkiest smile ever to exist. The bright, genuine grin she gave him made his chest expand from sheer elation.

This was his family. Gathered together in the daylight for a Sunday barbecue in a house he and Felicity had compromised on (not-mansion-big, not-too-small), in a yard with a flower and vegetable garden, and the people who mattered. If you ignored the basement that they would gather in when the city needed its masked protectors, they were a very normal family indeed.


End file.
